I personally was not that impressed with the fit and finish of the Putsch saws. For a little more money you can step up to a Pax saw (http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=46886&cat=1,42884,63338&ap=1) which are tapered and breasted. For quite a bit more money you can step up the super premium brands (Lie Nielsen, Wenzloff, etc.). I enjoy using both my Pax and Wenzloff saws, it just depends on how much cash you want to part with. :) Good luck!

28” long, over 7” wide by the handle. Just a “run-of-the-mill” Warranted Superior Brand. Just clean it up, sharpen it up. MOST of the old vintage saws won’t need to be re-set. Price for these? I USUALLy paid an average of…......$2.00 each.

The main thing is that it needs to be comfortable. This is more important in a rip saw. This is one case where new is not as good as old. The newer handles are not comfortable and prone to creating blisters. New can be modified but for the most part, ergonomics of the newer ones fail. Some of the vintage rip saws have an additional thumb hole for overhand sawing. This is a great addition for a lot of ripping to give you multiple holds so you can switch it up a bit.(random pics from google images)

There are also other options. My weapon of choice is a frame saw. (Well, unless I just take it over to the bandsaw ;) ) Some people really get into the Japanese style saws.

I picked up an old Canadian Disston 5 ppi rip on the bay. It was in very good shape with the hole in the handle to help changing your grip on a long rip. I sharpened it my self ( sharpening a rip is much easier than a xcut ) and itcuts amazingly fast. I made a saw vise to sharpen it out of some scrape wood.I think I paid $42.00 for it. If you can find a decent old Disston that is the way to go.

There are lots of easy choices for crosscut saws. Rip saws have much fewer choices. I understand you are just getting started in this but jointing and setting teeth is something that you will do anyway if you are going to maintain your own saws. It’s not difficult. But I also understand people that would rather just spend their time woodworking rather than sharpening. That is part of the reason I use frame saws. It gets dull, I just pop in a new blade. I have a bundle of them.

It just depends on where you want to spend your time. If you buy new, you will spend a while getting the handle into a usable state. If you buy used, you will spend time sharpening. If you are not going to do all the maintenance yourself, you might as well get something like the Putsch. It will be cheaper to replace than do send out to get a work over.

All of the old, rusty, Vintage saws I have bought, and restored, they did not need to be re-set. They still had plenty of set to them. Handles? Haven’t been a problem for a woodworker to fix. If nothing else, one can find handles on the feebay.

Missing bolts? Again, not a real problem, either. Some old saws are only good as parts saws. And, they are about maybe a $1 each.

Saw vise. You could go out an win one one the ebay, or, just clamp two straight pieces of wood and make your own. Yep, there are some good rip saws out there, even go to a barn sale, or a flea market. Check the blade for bends and kinks. All the hardware there? Price? $2-5 is about what I pay for saws. As for them bent saws, IF the rest of the saw is good, you will have a nice source of hardware on hand to fix up the straight saws. Pay maybe a dollar for those bent up ones, but no higher. Locate a few GOOD saw files, that match the tooth count of the saw. Maybe you just might wind up with a decent “line-up” of saws..

There ARE good tools being made today – they just cost more. I have a limited amount of free time, so even though I would like to learn to refurbish old tools or make my own jigs, that is not how I choose to spend my scarce workshop time right now.

So I am willing to invest a bit more for high quality tools that are not going to take a lot of time and education to get ready for use.

So, I recently purchased my first Bad Axe Tool Works – and I can promise you it will not be my last. Since it is made to measure, it was a joy to use right out of the box. The downside is a wait of months for your personalize saw to be built, but I have never cut with a saw that felt so much an extension of my arm.

It is all a trade-off. We each decide how we are going to spend our time and money. Right now I have more money than time (not a lot of money but almost no time!).

A compromise might be a great refurbished saw from someone who knows what they are doing – I think there are even a couple of LJs who resell saws they have rescued and rebuilt.